Here are a few pictures from the weekend - thanks to Matt for taking some of them!

Me with Sarge, who puts the whole thing together

Over the first A frame

(then there was a second one)

(then a tunnel)

(then there was a ball pit)

(then the tires)

Then to the weave poles, Riggs was trying to help me with the big ball. I brought along a ball for him, so that he wouldn't take a ball out of the ball pit and cause us to get a time fault.

(then over the little jumps and into the woods, run down the gravel path, cross the stream, get stuck in the prickers and get bloody, run up the hill, talk to the lady at the top of the hill, she tells you to go through the woods to the bike path and turn left. Get to the bike path, turn left, run for a really long time, don't see any police tape or flags, get really worried that you're lost, keep on running, try not to get run over by bikes, keep on running, try not to keel over dead. Don't trip on Riggs. Finally find guy in orange Iron Dog shirt)

Me: "HELLO! I found you!"Guy: "You might be surprised, but we have a race going on today called the Iron Dog."Me: "Yes, I know... I'm the first runner!" (I show him my number)Guy points across the road from him "You should have come out of the woods from there"Me: "uh... now what?" (really just wanting him to tell me where I need to run to because this is a race.)Guy: "well, I don't know..."

and for the next 3-5 minutes (I'm positive it was at least three minutes) we talked about where I ran, where I should have ran, and the price of tea in China... but not about where I needed to go. So, finally, I found out where the path was where I needed to be and continued...

So...

through the woods, down the hill, past the guy in the red shirt, up the hill to the clearing

To the PaintballTwo shots, one standing, one kneeling.

On to the carry...You can carry your dog (I carried Riggs)

or a sack of potatoes

and finally, the crawl

all done!

Her dog pulled her back into the stream!

Happy 69th birthday to one of the runners! She also won her age group.

Matt and Earl had the overall fastest time of the day.Riggs and I took second in our age category (by one minute, see note above... )(Earl lost his dentures on the course)

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

LMM wrote:It doesn't look as bad as how I thought it was described but maybe you have to be there. By bad I mean I envisioned it being dirty and slimy

All of the descriptions came from other people. It wasn't that bad at all - we expected pure torture, this was more like a run with your dog that included a few things to do. The creek was about knee deep and pretty cold. The worst part of the whole thing was the constant fear of getting lost because the trail was not very well marked.

It was fun, I'm glad we made the trip, but I'm not seeing another 12 hour trek in future years...

Michelle

Inside me is a thin woman trying to get out. I usually shut the bitch up with a martini.

LMM wrote:It doesn't look as bad as how I thought it was described but maybe you have to be there. By bad I mean I envisioned it being dirty and slimy

All of the descriptions came from other people. It wasn't that bad at all - we expected pure torture, this was more like a run with your dog that included a few things to do. The creek was about knee deep and pretty cold. The worst part of the whole thing was the constant fear of getting lost because the trail was not very well marked.

It was fun, I'm glad we made the trip, but I'm not seeing another 12 hour trek in future years...